Bowling alley bumper systems have been available since at least as early as 1965. Such systems were designed to be used by children and/or the physically handicapped as well as others who lack the physical coordination or strength to bowl, i.e., project a majority of the balls over the length of the alley without ending up in one of the gutters. Early systems required relatively difficult steps to set up a lane or lanes for so called "bumper" bowling. For this reason, a number of bowling alley operating personnel were reluctant to promote "bumper" bowling or to encourage children or the handicapped to use their lanes.
More recently, a bowling alley bumper mechanism such as the one disclosed in the United States patent of Chandler et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,900,024, overcame many of the earlier problems. In such systems, an elongated bumper is mounted alongside and parallel to each alley gutter. The systems also include movable supports that permit the extension of the bumpers to guard the gutters when guarding is desired and retraction of the bumpers to expose the gutters when normal alley operation is desired.
It is now believed that the availability of the Chandler-type systems, coupled with a change in demographics and business pressures will encourage bowling alley operators to put more emphasis on bumper bowling to encourage children to learn to bowl, attract families and to provide a challenging game for the physically handicapped. For this reason, it is believed that there is a demand for an improved bowling alley bumper system which provides a more attractive appearance, is relatively inexpensive to manufacture, easy to install and remove, protects the mechanism from damage and, at the same time, provides more ready access to the rear of the lanes without walking on the lanes. In view of the fact that many such systems will be installed over a ball return, it is also desirable to have easy access to the ball return in the area of the ball pick-up mechanisms.
It has now been found that an improved bowling alley bumper system, in accordance with the present invention, provides the aforementioned desirable features.